A Question about Gender

waldo slusher waldoslusher at yahoo.com
Tue Jul 30 12:15:54 EDT 2002



Sorry for this basic question, but after doing some
reading in my Greek grammar, it struck me that the
Gender of a word may not correspond to the Gender of
its referent. Some argue that the PNEUMA (neuter) does
not imply that the Spirit is an IT, but could be
understood as HE. But then when we go to Adjectives,
it seems that unspecified adjectives are considered
Gender specific. 

The example I ran across was in Matthew 24:40 and 41.
There, DUO are in the field, hEIS is taken. Since hEIS
is masculine, we say it is one MALE. In the next
verse, MIA is taken, and since it is feminine, we say
one FEMALE.

Or, this note appears in the NET Bible at John 2:

Grk “all.” The word “people” has been supplied for
clarity, since the Greek word PANTAS is masculine
plural (thus, indicating people rather than things).

But that requires that Gender is a semantic part of
the adjective. 

But as I pointed out above, PNEUMA is neuter but is
not said to be about a "thing rather than a person."

Also in John, where the passage that talks about Jesus
and the Father are hEN. Some argue that since it is
neuter, it is not referring to PERSON, but THING.

How do we explain the idea of Gender being flexible in
words, such as PNEUMA, and at other times the Gender
denotes PERSON or THING.

Need help with this.



=====
Waldo Slusher
Calgary, AL

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better
http://health.yahoo.com



More information about the B-Greek mailing list